Page 65 of The Spell Caster

“Useless asshole!” I shrieked, not even sure which of the Greys I was talking about at this point. “They’re trying to cover everything up—the weapons, the demon,” I hissed. “Why?”

Costi shook his head, releasing me.

“But you have suspicions?”

He was quiet for a moment. “You first.”

I paced away from him and back. “They don’t want to change. They’re afraid of acknowledging the situation because it’ll force them to do things differently.”

Costi nodded. “Some of them, yeah.”

I looked up at him. “What else?”

He ran a hand through his hair. “Say you wanna make someone do something. Something they don’t want to do. What would you do?”

“Find out what’s important to them and threaten them with it,” I said, thinking of how my mother and Grey had both gone after Costi to get me to comply.

“What if you don’t want them to realize what you’re up to?”

I stopped pacing. “You think they’re hiding things to… to manipulate people somehow?”

He nodded. “If they have all the information, they can twist it into anything they want, make it support anything they want us to think.”

I considered it. “And then what?”

Costi looked out into the trees, a line of concern forming between his eyebrows. “Nothing good.”

Chapter 13

LAYLA

Something woke me. My room was still dark, but outside, there was some sort of commotion. Moving back the curtain, I could see porch lights flickering on and the flashing of a witch light being carried in the distance. Suddenly wide awake with adrenaline, I left my room to see what was happening.

As I reached for the handle to peek outside, a loud banging caused me to jump back. It sounded like someone beating on the door with both fists.

“Sativa!” a voice called.

I yanked the door open, and a long-haired witch in a nightgown rushed in. I heard my covenmates emerging from their rooms with various protests and questions.

“Sativa!” the witch cried, tears streaming down her face as she ran. Outside, I could see other witches running, doors opening. Fear seized me. I quickly shut the door and locked it.

“Fern, babe, what’s happening?” Sativa drew the crying witch into her arms.

“People are going wild outside,” Datura said, standing next to Oliver. “Are we being attacked?”

“Not us, other Circles!” Fern sobbed. “Cypress and Saltmarsh are sending distress calls and fleeing for their lives, and no one can get a hold of anyone from Hillsong. We’re next… oh fate, we’re next!”

Sativa ran her hand down Fern’s hair. “Shh, you’re safe,” she said, but she looked up at me uncertainly.

Panic slammed into me as an emergency signal blared from everyone’s phones.

Oliver looked down at his screen. “Shit. Shit. We’re… we’re being called up,” he yelled over the tone.

“Us?” Datura grabbed Oliver’s arm. “We don’t even have guardians assigned!”

“It says all covens,” I said through numb lips, reading through the stark, all-caps notification on my own phone. The alert sound ended, leaving us in stunned silence.

Sativa’s familiar appeared by her side as she released Fern. “We… we’d better get ready. We should go get our robes.”

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